Curly Bear Wagner

[Dietmar]

Even though it happened in July, I only today heard the sad news that Curly Bear Wagner died at age 64.

I was fortunate to hear Wagner talking about Siksika history at a campground in Glacier National Park in 1999. I will especially remember him for his outstanding humor.

He will be missed.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072103268.html

Clarence "Curly Bear" Wagner was among the Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz

Clarence "Curly Bear" Wagner, 64, an American Indian historian who pressed for repatriation of ancestral remains to tribes, died of cancer July 16 at a Browning, Mont., hospital on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, said his cousin Walter Lamar.

A cultural director for the Blackfeet Tribe, Mr. Wagner shared his culture through his travels in the United States and Europe. However, he always considered the Blackfeet Reservation his home, Lamar said.

As a young man, Mr. Wagner was on the board of the American Indian Movement and was among the native Americans who occupied Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971, the Great Falls Tribune newspaper reported. He later worked for the return of human remains that were released in 1988 by the Smithsonian Institution and in the 1990s by Chicago's Field Museum, officials at the museums confirmed.

Eileen Maxwell, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, said Mr. Wagner also was an important figure in the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Wagner worked on an archaeological project at Ted Turner's Flying D Ranch near Bozeman to identify areas of tribal significance, said Mark Baumler, a Montana historic preservation officer.

"Montana has lost one of its most gifted tribal storytellers and cultural spokespersons," Baumler said on behalf of the Montana Historical Society.

Mr. Wagner worked on a number of documentaries, including "The Bear" for the Audubon Society, "The Wolverine" for the Discovery Channel and "Wolf" for CNN, according to his Web site. He also helped establish the "Native America Speaks" interpretive program at Glacier National Park and often presented the program to park visitors, park spokesman Wade Muehlhof said.


"He had a special ability to connect with his audience, especially children, who seemed drawn to his warmth," said Ranger Mark Wagner, who is not related. "He was a tremendous friend of the park."

According to the Great Falls Tribune, he was the great-grandson of the famous Blackfeet warrior Red Crow and the great-nephew of one of the principal chiefs of the Blood Nation, Seen From Afar. His mother died when he was 5, according to Lamar, who said that as a high school senior, Mr. Wagner and another high school student lived alone in a Browning trailer as their graduation approached. Individual photos taken around the time of graduation show Wagner and other boys wearing the same coat and tie, which were passed around for photo purposes because the boys could not afford their own, Lamar said.

Mr. Wagner studied at several colleges, including Western Montana, Eastern Montana and Idaho State University. He was a military veteran who grew to dislike warm rain because it reminded him of his service in Vietnam, Lamar said.

In 1994, he founded the Going-to-the-Sun Institute and began taking tourists on trips to important Blackfeet cultural sites.

Survivors include two sons and two daughters.